Everyday Randomness

Charter Pt 7

This is a series I have called Charter Communications Rant that is simply about all the issues I have had with Charter over the past 3 years, and how pissed I am at them.

So I made an appointment for the tech to arrive on March 2nd. How did that go? Well, the appointment was from 8am-noon. I drug myself out of bed at 8:30 knowing the tech hadn’t arrived yet. I knew this because a. Charter techs are supposed to call you 30 minutes before they arrive and b. no matter what your appointment window is, they will always show up at the last minute. So I made myself some coffee, started some house cleaning, blogged a little, watched my internet cut in and out a few times, surfed the web a little, and realized it was already 12:30. Where did the time go? Wait? Where’s my tech?

I called Charter and explained to the nice lady on the phone that I had appointment for that morning, but the tech didn’t arrive. If the tech doesn’t arrive during your appointment, you qualify for a month’s free service. I was excited to get my free service, but still pissy that the tech didn’t arrive. I gave the nice little lady my confirmation # for the appointment, and listened to her say “Oh dear. I need to put you on hold for a minute if you don’t mind.” As I sat there waiting on hold, listening to the cheesy elevator song that repeats itself over and over, and yes I mean ONE song that repeats over and over, I thought to myself, please God don’t let this be happening again. Why me? Do I have some big mark on my forehead that says Charter has to give me the short end of every stick?

Alas, the woman came back on the phone to tell me there was a problem. Problem? What could it be this time? She kindly explains that the appointment had been entered into the computer for the wrong date. Okay, that’s not so bad, I’m thinking what, they put it in for the 3rd instead of the 2nd? No! They set the appointment for March 2nd, but 2008!!! Repeat that? 2008!!!! My appointment was schedule for an entire year later? What? Where they anticipating the future problems they know we’ll have? I do find it quite funny actually, although I’m hoping it was just a typo. The nice lady sent an email to the dispatch office explaining my problem, and I had a tech at my house within 2 hours. Not bad for a company that doesn’t like to show up!

When the tech arrived, it turns out I know him. Well, I don’t know him really well, but he’s an ex-flame of one of my old high school friends. I explained everything that’s been happening, showed him how I had to fix my modem myself (that’s a whole different story, but a quick fix with a toothpick prying the prongs back up and I have my Ethernet working again), gave him the spiel about the modem being on a separate dedicated line, held the new puppy back from licking him to death while he checked the inside stuff out, and waited patiently while he took a look outside. Fifteen minutes later he came inside laughing. I guess the puzzled look on my face was enough to make him explain.

Apparently there were a couple problems with the lines. It all starts with the splitter on the box on the outside of the house. Like I said, we have two lines, one to the modem, one to the tvs. The splitter inside the box was a 5 way splitter, and each had its own cable coming out of it. One went to the modem, and the other 4 went under the house. When he crawled under the house, he found that the 4 other lines each had additional splitters on them, which were then routed into other lines, back together again, and into a jumbled mess until eventually 1 individual line ran back inside the house. From the line inside the house, there is a 2 way splitter, one line going to each tv.

Now, I don’t know about other locations, but here, if Charter uses a splitter anywhere on your line, it has a little label that says “Charter Communications” on the back of it. Every single one of the splitters under the house had this label. This means that my original lines HAD been changed by a CHARTER person. His explanation was that basically none of the other techs wanted to fool with actually fixing the signals at the pole, so instead they would just a couple splitters and another couple lines into the jumble. If you know anything about signals and splitters you know there’s a loss of signal every time you have to use another splitter. This is why it’s best to have your modem on a dedicated line.

It only took the cable guy about an hour to remove all of the useless splitters, fix the lines the way they really should be, switch the splitter in the box to a two way, and adjust the lines at the pole. Results? I haven’t had a problem since! Thank you tech guy who actually knows what he’s doing! Since he actually fixed the problem, I had no problem giving him a glass of tea and letting him play with the puppy for a few minutes while we discussed motorcycles and the bike he wants to buy. I even hooked him up with some info on a few bikes for sale. See? I’m only a bitch when you don’t do your job! You do it the right way and I’ll talk bikes and play with puppies while you get paid for nothing!